Director and writer Marleen Valien has signed with Anonymous Content for her first commercial and music video representation in the U.S. and U.K. Based in Berlin, Valien has a body of work which spans short films, commercials and music videos.
Her commercial work includes campaigns for Pinterest and German publishing house Reclam; and her stop-motion spec commercials for Oatly won two golds at the Young Directors Award and were honored at the Spotlight Festival. She has also directed music video promos for Milky Chance and Midnight Tracks, the latter of which won her a silver YDA and a UKMVA nomination.
Her short films include the award-winning Hot Dog, Not the 80s, and A Small Cut, lavishly shot explorations of sexuality and coming of age, which premiered at festivals including Sundance, Tribeca and Clermont-Ferrand.
Before studying directing at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy, Valien studied visual communication at the University of the Arts in Berlin, where her classes included art with professor and artist Ai Weiwei.
Her latest work, the mockumentary with feminist arts group Who Needs Feminism Today?, questions why so many billionaires “are flying into space in rockets shaped like male genitalia” and seeks to restore gender equality to the cosmos. The film was shortlisted for three Cannes Lions, including the Glass Lion for Change. It was also featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Valien is currently writing her first feature film.
Music Biopics Get Creative At Toronto Film Festival
Many of the expected conventions of music biopics are present in "Piece by Piece," about the producer-turned-pop star Pharrell Williams, and "Better Man," about the British singer Robbie Williams. There's the young artist's urge to break through, fallow creative periods and regrettable chapters of fame-addled excess. But there are a few, little differences. In "Piece by Piece," Pharrell is a Lego. And in "Better Man," Williams is played by a CGI monkey. If the music biopic can sometimes feel a little stale in format, these two movies, both premiering this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, attempt novel remixes. In each film, each Williams recounts his life story as a narrator. But their on-screen selves aren't movie stars who studied to get a part just right, but computer-generated animations living out real superstar fantasies. While neither Williams has much in common as a musician, neither has had a very traditional career. Their films became reflections of their individuality, and, maybe, a way to distinguish themselves in the crowded field of music biopics like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Rocketman." "This is about being who you are, even if it's not something that can be put in a box," Pharrell said in an interview Tuesday alongside director Morgan Neville. Also next to Pharrell: A two-foot-tall Lego sculpture of himself, which was later in the day brought to the film's premiere and given its own seat in the crowd. The experience watching the crowd-pleasing "Piece by Piece," which Focus Features will release Oct. 11, can be pleasantly discombobulating. A wide spectrum of things you never expected to see in Lego form are animated. Virginia Beach (where Pharrell grew up). An album of Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life."... Read More